Juanita Moore


Juanita Moore was an American film, television, and stage actress.
She was the fifth black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award in any category, and the third in the Supporting Actress category at a time when only one black actor, Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind, had won an Oscar.
Her most famous role was as Annie Johnson in the film Imitation of Life.

Early life and career

Juanita Moore was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, the daughter of Ella and Harrison Moore. She had seven siblings. Her family moved in the Great Migration to Los Angeles, where she was raised. Moore first performed as a dancer, part of a chorus line at the Cotton Club before becoming a film extra while working in theater.
Moore was the vice president of the Original Cambridge Players, who took a Los Angeles production of The Amen Corner to Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in April 1965. She was friends with Marlon Brando and James Baldwin. It was Moore who asked Brando to lend the funds to Baldwin to write the play.
After making her film debut in Double Deal, Moore had a number of bit parts and supporting roles in motion pictures through the late 1930s and 1950s.
Moore's performance in the remake of Imitation of Life as black housekeeper Annie Johnson, whose daughter Sarah Jane passes for white, won her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for the role. When the two versions of Imitation of Life were released together on DVD, one of the bonus features was a new interview with Moore.
Moore continued to act for film and TV, with a role in Disney's The Kid, and guest-starring roles on Dragnet, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., ER and Judging Amy.
On April 23, 2010, a new print of Imitation of Life was screened at the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival in Los Angeles. Both Moore and co-star Kohner attended. After the screening, the two women appeared on stage for a question-and-answer session hosted by TCM's Robert Osborne. Moore and Kohner received standing ovations.

Personal life

Moore was married for 50 years to Charles Burris, who died in 2001. He was a Los Angeles bus driver and they met when she stepped out in front of his approaching bus. She and Burris married a few weeks later.
Her grandson is actor/producer Kirk E. Kelleykahn, who is CEO/President of "Cambridge Players – Next Generation", a theatre troupe whose founding members included Moore.

Death

Moore died at her home in Los Angeles on January 1, 2014, at age 99 of natural causes. She is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Partial filmography

Double Deal as Nightclub Patron Belle Starr as Dressed Up Freed Slave Broken Strings as Nightclub Patron Star Spangled Rhythm as Dancer Cabin in the Sky as Nightclub Patron / Churchgoer Pinky as Nurse Tarzan's Peril as Native Woman No Questions Asked as Maid in Lounge Skirts Ahoy! as Black Drill Team Member Lydia Bailey as Marie Affair in Trinidad as DominiqueThe Iron Mistress as Juanita, Judalon's Maid The Royal African Rifles as Elderly WomanWitness to Murder as Mental PatientThe Gambler from Natchez as Yvette's Maid Women's Prison as Polyclinic 'Polly' JonesLord of the Jungle as Molu's Wife Not as a Stranger as Mrs. Clara Bassett Ransom! as Shirley LorraineThe Opposite Sex as Powder Room Attendant The Girl Can't Help It as HildaSomething of Value as Tribal Woman Band of Angels as Budge The Helen Morgan Story as Lucey, Backstage Maid Bombers B-52 as Clarissa The Green-Eyed Blonde as Miss Randall Imitation of Life as Annie JohnsonAlfred Hitchcock Presents as CleoTammy Tell Me True as DellaWalk on the Wild Side as MamaA Child Is Waiting as Julius' Mother Papa's Delicate Condition as EllieThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Mrs. MacFarlandThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Mrs. JonesThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour as SuseThe Singing Nun as Sister MaryRosie! as NurseGentle Ben as Mama JolieDragnet "The Missing Realtor" as Mrs. Edna JenkinsUptight as Mama WellsAngelitos negros as Nana Mercé